They were wild girls, fun girls, lost girls. They didn't care whether or not their feet or faces were dirty, nor did they fret over their tattered frocks. Each girl smiled toothy smiles, enthusiastic smiles, opened their mouths with big belly laughs, so infectious the sound that it would be echoed through the entirety of Neverland. This place, this wondrous place, kept them as they were. Lost in time and social influences, they lacked regard as to how girls should act, instead acting as themselves. 

        William saw this and kept a wary eye on his sisters, Joan and Michelle. Already, Joan showed a penchant for daredevil tricks when she took flight, looping through treetops fueled only by her own happiest thoughts. Michelle idolized Patty Pan, the leader of these Lost Girls, and skipped after her at every chance. Even at bedtime, Michelle, with her face still painted by the neighboring Chieftain, laid fast asleep curled up against Patty Pan. 

        When Patty invited him to Neverland, he never guessed just how thoroughly these girls needed order in their lives. He took a moment to push out the image of Patty jubilantly dancing with that Chieftain's handsome son, a flare of jealousy he hadn't expected to possess for someone as reckless as Patty Pan. 

        A warm light flew into the room, silent and unnaturally graceful. William knew that it must be that Tinker fairy when he landed close to Patty's head. The fairy's light dimmed to keep from disturbing the sleeping girls. Tiny hands removed Patty's hat and swept her hair away from her eyes with tender care. The moment was intimate and practiced and William could imagine a thousand nights that have ended with the same private ritual. 

        William clenched his teeth and turned over. That same tight jealousy zipped through him. He should remember that he was here to take care of the Lost Girls and to keep Joan and Michelle from acting too much like the inhabitants. They were supposed to be gentle girls, demure and sweet. That was the way of the world outside of Neverland. And as magical as this place was, mother and father weren't here. No one's mother or father was here. As the eldest, he had a responsibility.

        In the morning, William woke to find that the girls, his sisters included, had gone out to swim with the Mermen. Knowing that Michelle hadn't learned to swim yet, he'd rushed out of bed, breathless when he arrived by the tree that leaned casually over the tall cliff. The girls were screeching with laughter, flailing as they leaped from the tree limbs and plummeted down into the clear blue waves. 

        "Good heavens! Where is Michelle?" William demanded in a hard tone. Noting the concern on his face, Michelle, with Joan's help, climbed down the tree. He saw that they were both soaked and had already enjoyed the leap to their possible doom, and were ready to try it all over again. William's face twisted in a rage.

        "It's okay, Willy. It's really a lot of fun," Joan said, shielding Michelle behind her sopping nightgown. 

        "You look ridiculous! Like wet rats! And Michelle can't swim!" William exclaimed.

        "Yes I can!" Michelle argued. She'd never stood up for herself before, depending on either Joan or William to be on her side. Both of her older siblings looked down at her with shock. "I learned this morning. It's easy!" Michelle closed her eyes, puffed out her cheeks, and moved her arms outward the way Patty and Joan had taught her. In water, she looked normal, but outside of it, the sight was funny enough that Joan giggled. And her warm chuckle made William laugh even though he tried to stifle it. And soon, all the Lost Girls were laughing from up in the tree where they watched the quarrel.

        What was it about this place? Could it always be so perfect?

        "Too chicken to try it, William?" Patty asked and tilted her head back and crowed. She sat beside the tree, crossed legged and flying, smiling, happy thoughts floating through her. She was dripping wet too, but looked nothing like a rat. Her grin was goading, challenging William to try his hand at his own bravery. It was the same grin that convinced him to fly to Neverland, the very same grin that made him run for hours in the woods chasing Lost Girls in an endless game of tag, this same grin that helped him stay up late with the girls and listen to the Haudenausonee tell stories. I dare you, William, this grin seemed to say. 

        William walked past his sisters and climbed the tree, high up above the Lost Girls, up where Patty Pan sat. He walked out that limb, within reaching distance of Patty, and peered down to the dark water below. Tinker flitted before his eyes and twisted around him to push. His shouting drowned out Patty's uproarious laughter. The Lost Girls cheered, but the sound of their voices altered from jubilation to something anxious. 

        Below William wasn't a blue ocean. It was a net attached to a ship. A pirate's ship. When William fell into the net he heard the thunderous sound of cannon fire. Swiftly, he saw the sky move as the ship sailed away and he could do nothing about it, so tangled was he in the net that saved his life. 

        "Oh my, look what we have here.” It was the rich alto of a woman of breeding. When William turned to look at her, he was met with amusement. The woman was dressed outlandishly in a fanciful hat and smart red coat with gleaming gold buttons and possessed a hook for a hand. Her slender legs were encased in tan britches and she wore stockings and shining buckle shoes upon her feet. When she smiled at him, a predatory grimace, William saw that she also possessed a gold tooth.

        “You’re a pirate!” William accused and struggled fiercely in his tangled net only to be further encumbered by them.

        "Why, it looks like a boy!" said one of the other crew women who didn't look to be dressed as smartly as the first. They ignored his accusations, or accepted the term without the slightest of cares.

        Did no one in Neverland care about propriety?

        "A boy amid Patty Pan and the Lost Girls? How droll! Ms. Smee, please make the ransom demands when we are well out of range. Wibbles, take this boy to the brig and make sure he stays there,” the woman with the hook commanded.

        “Yes, Captain!” replied both Ms. Smee and Wibbles.

        Without untangling him, Wibbles, who was a hulking woman with an eye patch, lifted William over her shoulder and carried him below deck. In the distance, William could see tiny figures along a cliff edge. He could hear the bang of muskets and the clashing of steel until he was tossed into his cell below.

        “I didn't think they’d ignore the summons,” he heard Ms. Smee say just outside of his cell. William pretended to sleep but the Captain banged her golden hook on the metal bars and it startled him.

        “Did you hear that, boy? They've ignored your ransom. I guess your novelty has worn off for Pan, hmm?” Captain Hook disclosed with a hint of pleasure at the thought.

        “You’re lying,” William replied, his voice tight with doubt.

        “Don’t worry, I won’t toss you aside so casually,” Captain Hook continued and twirled a black lock of her hair through her good hand. William noticed the rapier at her side, gleaming as brightly as her pretty buttons and gold tooth.

        “I'd rather walk the plank,” William spat out.

        "Duly noted," the Captain said with a cruel stretch of her ruddy lips. It made William shudder and press further back against the wall. 

        They left him there with a crust of stale bread and water. The rocking of the ocean made him ill and after finding no feasible way to escape, William closed his eyes and waited.

        The sound of cannon fire woke him but the firm grip on his arm startled him more. The Captain was grinning wildly down at him and dragged him from the cot in his cell, up the shabby steps to the bright light outside. Her grip was bruising and unbreakable but William was grateful that it was not the hook that held him. The curved gold was disconcerting and it came down into an impossibly sharp point. When she brought that point close to his neck, William tried to shrink away from it.

        "Patty Pan, how nice of you to come. Late as usual," said the Captain as she pulled William closer to her. Patty was sitting cross-legged on a beam of wood, alone. 

        "I'd be on time if you hadn't broken my watch, you wormy codfish," Patty retorted and pulled a gold timepiece from her pocket. "I had it fixed recently but it doesn't do much time telling," she said casually as she wound it up. 

        William noticed that Captain Hook tensed behind him when the pocket watch ticked the seconds. 

        "You wretched girl!" The Captain was seething with anger, so much so that she shoved William into Wibbles so that she could use her hand to draw her sword. "Ms. Smee, introduce the boy to our plank while I take care of this urchin." Before Ms. Smee could reply in the affirmative, Captain Hook was already swinging her blade toward Patty.

        As William was being dragged away, he saw the girl deflecting Hook's blade with her own. He'd never seen women sword fight before and even though Patty was his friend, he was curious to see more of it. However, Ms. Smee pushed and shoved him forcefully toward the plank and hefted him up onto it. The waters below looked cold and uninviting. 

        He noticed then that they were not on the open ocean but floating by a lagoon. But his hope of swimming to safety was dashed when Ms. Smee locked a weighted chain to his ankles and prodded him to the edge of the plank. She didn't make him go further. Instead, she smiled and waited.

        William found that if he angled his head enough, he could see bits of the battle. Patty seemed to have the upper hand because she was much faster than Captain Hook despite her shorter blade and general reach. The crowd around them roared, screaming curses and encouragements until their mobbed voices melded together and formed its own blunt weapon against Patty. 

        "Your life for the boy, Pan. Would you make such a sacrifice?" Captain Hook was sneering and panting. The battle was like a waltz around the ship and it paused for breath near enough to the plank so that Patty could see William and so William could hear them strike their deal.

        "Yes," Patty said without pause, also breathless. She tossed her blade to the ground. "But you must admit, it was a damn good fight," she said and grinned at the pirate. Captain Hook grinned back and for an instant, William understood that this was habitual for them.

        "Kill the boy," the Captain ordered casually and William felt the tip of a blade nudge him the final inches into the dark waters below. 

        "No!" he heard Patty cry before the rush of water drowned out his senses. The water was brisk but tolerable. When the bubbles cleared, William could see that he'd sunk to the bottom with the weight around his ankles. He tugged and pulled, tried to swim and though he moved a few inches, he would drown before he could reach the sandy beach. 

        As panic set in, William felt small hands clasp his shoulders. Turning, he saw Michelle's round face made rounder by her cheeks full of air. Joan was by his feet, lifting the chain and pointing up. With their help, he broke the surface and gasped desperately to fill his lungs. 

        "Ugh! This is heavy!" Joan cried as she nudged them toward the shore. She kicked her legs while William swung his arms. Michelle moved to help Joan carry a length of the chain and arduously, they made their way to the shallows. 

        "We have to help Patty!" William cried, tripping over himself to stand upright.

        "This is part of the plan, William. She distracts Hook while we save you," Joan said, her face grim.

        "But...She's just a girl!" he replied. The hollering of the women aboard the ship only made him more anxious for Patty.

        "That's what makes her so amazing!" Michelle chimed in, wiping water out of her starry eyes. She lacked any of Joan's doubts, doubts that have been instilled in her from those around her. William felt some guilt knowing that he'd kept his sisters from playing with him and his school friends all because they were girl. He was partially to blame for Joan's misgivings. But Michelle was hopeful and sure, confident that Patty Pan could face a ship of pirates and come out the victor. His little sister believed enough for all of them.

        "Where are the Lost Girls?" William asked impatiently and shivering despite the bright warm sun.

        "They're coming soon," Joan replied.

        "There! There!" Michelle exclaimed and pointed along the curve of the lagoon.

        The Lost Girls were divided on three rowboats. The center boat hoisted a flank of red dripping meat. Behind them, the water rippled purposefully, following the bait. There was a sound of a ticking clock, quiet and muffled.

        In just that instant, a shape rose up from the pirate's ship, high into the sky before releasing a roosters crow and racing at full speed toward the shore. William realized that it was Patty, holding Captain Hook by the waist as the woman struggled helplessly in the air. Hook twisted and reached for Patty's pocket watch, crushing it in her palm with her hook.

        "NO MORE TICK-TOCKING!" The woman demanded. But when the watch was destroyed and the ticking remained, she tensed and William saw her searching the waters below. "No! No! Mercy, Patty Pan! Mercy!"

        But Patty only smiled and hung Hook from a tree whose branches dropped much too close to the water. The Lost Girls rowed their baiting boat over, cut the bait and allowed a fearsome giant crocodile to swallow the parcel of meat right beneath Captain Hook's polished shoes. Hook wailed and hugged her knees to avoid the beast below, and in a desperate move, she twisted to cling the branch as tightly as possible with both her arms and her legs.

        A spot of golden light remained fixed over the crocodile. Tinker shook his magic over the creature before flying off. As the Lost Girls helped William and his sisters into their rowboat, he saw the crocodile rise out of the water. Tootles worked to rid William of his chain as the crocodile snapped viciously at the Captain's smart red coat. Each time it opened its mouth, it ticked like a clock. 

        "I wonder what happy thought it has?" Michelle asked as Patty Pan landed beside her. Patty saluted Ms. Smee in passing as the woman anxiously paddled her little boat to rescue her Captain.

        "The crocodile? That's a good question!" Patty said and abruptly guffawed. Her hearty laughter, irresistible as usual, made all three boats explode with the sound as they rowed away.

        Unintentionally, William was caught up too. His cheeks ached and his eyes grew watery and he wondered if he looked as happy as any of these other girls. Whatever doubts he had about Patty Pan and her Lost Girls, he didn't feel them now. He couldn't possibly cling to his skepticism when they’d all proven time and again that they were happy here as they were, as these lost girls left with nothing but their happy thoughts and contagious laughter.

        That was the thing about this place. Laughter was like Time; it never ended here.